Outdoor Kodiak: Island clime has guns over a barrel Have you looked at your guns recently? Are you certain they’re still in good shape after weeks or months of storage? Kodiak’s unique climate is the worst I’ve encountered for safely storing firearms. Experience in other climates might delude you into thinking that you did a good job of cleaning and lubing your gun for storage. But your precautions likely aren’t good enough for Kodiak. High humidity. Airborne salt....

Outdoor Kodiak: Final chance to hunt ducksThe start of a new year is always a mixed blessing for this old duck hunter. The season ends on January 22, and it’s a long wait until it opens again in October. But the hunting is often best in the final weeks! Lots more birds are on hand than at any other point in the season, even as fewer hunters are out and about. The details vary with the weather and especially the ice cover, but when things go right, they’re...

Outdoor Kodiak: Ringing in the new yearEach of us celebrates the New Year in our own way, just as it’s significance is different from one person to the next. For me, it’s all about that word “New.” Sure I reflect on the year just passing and the lessons learned, but that is the foundation for my approach to a new year. I’m not looking for life altering resolutions, however. I’m intent on applying the lessons learned and finding new things to do and new...

Outdoor Kodiak: Get outdoors for the holidayAs surely as day follows night, the anticipation and excitement of Christmas morning passes. The gifts are all opened, the house is restored to order, and phone calls to family and friends are completed. Certainly there’s the work and anticipation of the evening feast, and of course there will be football on television. Christmas morning is a hard act to follow. But in our household, it’s just the beginning of the...

Outdoor Kodiak: Stocking tradition rivals main gift event Christmas mornings are a high point of the year for families. And each family does it differently in traditions that pass down through families while new traditions are added. But opening gifts from under the tree is only a small part of the event. There’s the anticipation that builds as the family staggers one by one from a restless sleep. And no small measure of encouragement to help awaken the laggards! A big b...

Outdoor Kodiak: Ducks for ChristmasFor many families Christmas translates into at least a week off from work and school between Christmas and New Years. That’s a lot of time at home! In fact it may be the longest holiday of the year for some of us. The rest and family time are certainly welcome, but with the short hours of daylight, it also can turn into a little too much indoor time. You certainly want the family time, but it’s nice to get a break...

Outdoors Kodiak: Shopping for the HolidaysChristmas is just three weeks away, and it’s time to think seriously about gifts for the outdoor enthusiast. If you’re shopping for someone with sharply different interests than yours, that can be tough. I’m fortunate, in that my wife is my favorite outdoor companion. I have lots of time in the field with her, so it’s pretty easy for me to come up with a list of things she really wants and needs. She would probabl...

Outdoor Kodiak: Hunting deer during cold weather The weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s are important to many Kodiak families. It’s prime time for putting sweet venison in their freezers. Sure they have to invest the time and money in reaching the remote regions of the island. But it’s also the best time of year for filling tags. Even with warm rain rather than snow, many of the deer have dropped down to lower elevations. They’ve also concentrated into sp...

Outdoor Kodiak: Doldrum ducksThe recent heavy rain and warm weather make for challenging duck hunts. There is so much water on the road system, the ducks have lots of places to rest and feed. Add to that all the open water off the road system, and the distant ducks still have no reason to move here. Right now there aren’t all that many ducks on the road system, and they have lots of places to hide from hunters. Should you wait until cold weat...

Outdoor Kodiak: ’Tis the season for great eatsBy now, most outdoor enthusiasts have done a great job of stuffing their freezers. We have our work cut out for us, eating all that great fish and game between now and spring. If your family is new to such plenty, you’ll soon discover that the biggest challenge lies ahead. Using it all between now and the restart of fishing in spring. If you don’t have lots of preparations, and especially easy ones, then your fami...